Chakra is a term in Sanskrit meaning “wheel” or “turning”. It seems to originate from Hindu texts and practices, although similar concepts are also featured in a number of other religious or spiritual traditions. Quoting from the current Wikipedia entry:

“Chakra is a concept referring to wheel-like vortices which, according to traditional Indian medicine, are believed to exist in the surface of the etheric double of man. The Chakras are said to be “force centers” or whorls of energy permeating, from a point on the physical body, the layers of the subtle bodies in an ever-increasing fan-shaped formation. Rotating vortices of subtle matter, they are considered the focal points for the reception and transmission of energies. Different systems posit a varying number of chakras; the most well known system in the West is that of seven chakras.”

Chakra positions

There are a number of primary, secondary, etc…, chakras located at various places in the body. There are some differences in view, but the secondary ones are usually considered to lie along a centre line along the front of the body in locations such as the lower forehead, throat, the heart, solar plexus, abdomen below the navel, and then also at the corresponding level on the back of the body. These are oriented in a horizontal fashion along axis pointing forwards and backwards respectively. The primary ones are located along a centre line inside the body in the same areas, but then oriented with the axis in a vertical fashion. For these there are also two more chakras, one located at the perineum and the other at the crown of the head. There are also important chakras at the side of the body at the same levels as the previously mentioned ones, e.g. at the hips and temples. Other important ones are at the shoulders, the palms of the hands and the soles of the feet. Then there are of course a large number of minor ones in various locations.

How I got into chakras

I didn’t know very much about chakras, but I had noted that the unpleasant feelings I was using the spinning feelings exercise for were quite often located in positions corresponding to some of the positions described above. A couple of times on finishing an exercise, I also saw coloured discs corresponding to one popular systems description. The reason and meaning of this, if any, I do not know and don’t much care about. But these things did make me more curious of the topic. I think I may have tried a few times, apart from doing the exercises, to attempt to feel if there were any special sensations in those areas. There may have been some small results of this, but not much that I remember. However, after one long session of spinning feelings in various places at a college campus, I spontaneously felt all the secondary chakras, as previously described, rotating steadily and very clearly upon focusing my attention in each location. It was a sort of kinaesthetic sensation similar to the one from the exercise of spinning the feelings, but it was stable in each place without any other mental effort on my part than to briefly focus the attention in each spot. I’ve been more or less able to do that since then. (There have been exceptions, but I don’t recall exactly and there’s no point in getting into too many details here of my personal experience anyway.) That same evening I also became aware of an active so called “kundalini”, but I’ll get back to that later on.

At this point I feel I need to say that I certainly don’t want to scare away those who are perhaps atheistic, maybe leaning towards physicalism in their world view, or those generally sceptically inclined when it comes to spiritual matters. I know that I myself might very well have left the site at this point had I encountered it just a few years ago. The experience of feeling “chakras” might be due to some less explored functioning of the nervous system, or it could have some unknown spiritual basis if one prefers to believe such things, or perhaps both. In any case, spinning feelings as described on this site can most likely be done a number of times with quite some benefit without experiencing any activation of “chakras” or “kundalini”. Those sceptical of spiritual matters may of course chose to attribute the experience of chakras solely to machinations of the nervous system, but I think there may be some advantages in being at least a bit open to spiritual interpretations in dealing with some of these experiences. For this reason the spiritually sceptical reader might also want to check out the simulation argument, which at least liberated my thinking quite a bit. Any way, while the traditional, and in this area of experience commonly used terms sound strange and foreign – for obvious reasons – they are what they are and I will mostly stick to them.

Chakra properties

Traditionally the chakras are sometimes associated with various bodily and mental functions, and also usually said to be related to various major glands. Regarding these functions etc., I must say, though, that information one might find differs in various sources. But such details are not very important as far as I am concerned; at least I’ve managed without digging into it.

If one has the ability to feel chakras, a functioning chakra can be felt as a rotating sensation, a cyclical circular movement or vortex at the primary, secondary etc., chakra location. This is also associated with a flow and the relationship between the direction of the sensed circular motion and the direction of the flow through the chakra follows what is know in mathematics and physics as a right hand rule. This means that if one takes ones right hand and curls the fingers so that they are pointed in the direction of the rotation, the flow through the chakra will be in the direction of the outstretched thumb.

Another way to remember this, that some might find easier and I’ve seen used here and there, is to picture a clock placed on the body at the position of the chakra. If the rotation is clockwise, the flow will be directed towards the clock face and thus into the body.

Generally, if things are as they should be, the flow of the secondary chakras should be directed inwards, i.e. towards the centre of the body. If one is experiencing something unpleasant though, one may find the flow of a chakra to be temporarily directed outwards. One exception to the inward direction of the flow of the secondary chakras is that of the right hand. I find that it is directed outwards from the palm, while the left hand is directed inwards.

For the purpose of spiritual development, the flow of the primary chakras should in my opinion usually be directed upwards, but it not the case that a certain fixed direction should be something to strive for all the time. Exercises purposely directing the flow temporarily upwards or downwards is an obvious exception. The direction of the flow will also vary depending on what one is doing. For instance I’ve found a number of times that while thinking of and setting specific goals of a material or worldly nature, the flow will be directed downwards.

Just to be clear, I think that the directions of flows as described above, or orientations of chakras if one prefers to think of it that way, is mainly to be used as an indication of the current state of functioning of the chakra system. I certainly don’t mean to suggest that just because one is able to feel what’s going on one should manipulate these things all of the time to keep them in a certain way. I don’t even suggest one should have the intention or wish that it be configured a certain way, because this is more or less the same thing, as the flow can actually be directed by mere intention, at least with practice. Instead, the idea is that if one notices a different configuration or functioning going on for a while, this can be used as an indication that one may want to make some time to do various exercises to balance things a bit. Some such exercises are described on the chakra balancing page, but I’d suggest first reading a bit about the kundalini.